Luke 19:41-44 [NLTse]

⁴¹ But as [Jesus] came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, He began to weep. ⁴² “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴ They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation.”

Sermon

Ours is a faith of mixed emotions: Celebrating the new life we’ve been given in Christ, even as we lament the troubles of this fallen world around us that loves darkness more than light; on the one hand we live at peace with God and enjoy – by His grace – a growing peace with ourselves and those around us, and yet people can suddenly rise up and hate us in an instant and hold us with contempt and disdain, not for anything we’ve done, but merely because we follow Jesus; we can be so excited about the hope we have in the Lord and all His promises to us along with His whole worldwide bride, while at the very same time we can be sad and hurting for the many among our friends and family members who don’t know God nor love Him and who often don’t even seem to want to hear about Him…

Palm Sunday is filled with mixed emotions like that. Jesus is surrounded by waving palm branches and singing, cheering, adoring supporters, while the religious leaders glare-on scoffing and condemning Him and those who shout His praise; and though the Lord seems to be genuinely celebrating along with the waving, adoring, and dancing crowds, clearly His heart is heavy…

1 Timothy 1:15 says that, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”; in Mark Jesus proclaimed, “I came, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (2:17); in Luke He said of Himself, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (19:10); in Matthew the Lord makes clear that He came, “To give His life, a ransom for many” (20:28); and, in John the Lord Jesus said to Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor), “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (18:37). We could go on and on, but the reason for God being born the Man Jesus of Nazareth is clear: He came to show all people – but Jews especially – God; He came to speak God’s truth to humankind, but, again, especially to Jews; and, He came for His death to serve as a sacrifice for human sin so that sin would never separate human beings from God ever again.

No wonder He weeps as He drew nearer and nearer to Jerusalem: Sure, many were cheering and praising, celebrating and supporting Him around Him; but Jesus knew how shallow their faith was. They loved Him because He fed them. They followed Him because He healed them. They praised Him because He’d brought Lazarus back from the dead. They sought to make Him their king because surely in Him they had the One Whom God had sent to lead their revolution against the harsh Roman rule and Who would set them free!

But Jesus had not come to hand out to people the goodies of this life. No. He came to give them – to give us all – peace: Peace with God; and so that we might live at peace and harmony with one another.

Jesus is the Way to Peace. But the people had not understood the way to peace, they had rejected Him, and, He says, now peace was hidden from them…

In English we tend to think of peace as merely a lack of conflict: “A state in which there is no war or fighting,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary says; “a state of tranquillity or quiet”; “harmony in personal relations”; and the definition goes on similarly. But here in Luke this English word “peace” translates the Hebrew word shalom, and although includes the ideas of harmony and tranquility and lack of conflict, shalom has a far richer meaning in addition to all this.

In Christ, God’s peace – God’s shalom – is a complete peace: Shalom speaks of contentment and completeness, of wholeness and well-being and inner-harmony; God’s peace – His shalom – includes health and safety, one’s welfare and prosperity, a person’s perfection, their fullness, their soul at rest, the absence of any kind of agitation or discord whatsoever! The noun shalom comes from the root-verb shalom which means to be complete, to be perfect, to be full…

The prophet Isaiah famously prophesied the Lord Jesus to be called “The Prince of Peace”. And the apostle Paul writes, “Christ Himself has brought peace to us – He is our peace. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His Own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us,” (Ephesians 2:14) that separated us from one another; that separated us from God.

If you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ of Nazareth to be your Savior – your sin-sacrifice – and if you have not yet committed your life to following Him as your Lord – God’s messiah and Christ – then know that Jesus is weeping for you today. He’s not angry with you, He’s not threatening you; He weeps for you, He loves you. He has good things for you, the very best things. (Of course, the very best of those very best things is He Himself. J)

We all tend to know John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life,” but we don’t tend to remember John 3:17 all that well, that “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him!”

If you’re holding onto some secret or public sin today, know that Jesus weeps for you, as well. Let it go. No matter how much a part of you you think it is or has become, Let it go. Accept His shalom. His peace…